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I haven't seen this anywhere on the Service and Maintenance forum..which is alarming to me.

Subaru is recalling some of their blue OEM 15208AA12A engine oil filters due to possibility of leaking at the O-ring gasket. Please see the PDFs below for the official information.

If you purchased any blue OEM oil filters between July 1, 2012 and December 15, 2012, check their date codes. Heck, check all of them anyway just to be safe.

The date code format is FYJJJS where:F is the facility (S = Canada, A = USA)Y is the last digit of the year (1 = 2011, 2 = 2012, 3 = 2013)JJJ is the Julian date code (Google it if you are curious)S is the factory shift number (1 = 1st shift, 2 = 2nd shift, 3 = 3rd shift)

Filters NOT part of the recall, which are OK:
-If the date code begins with S1 or S2
-If the date code begins with A2291x or higher (where x is 1, 2, or 3)
-If the date code begins with A2290x or earlier AND is adjacently marked with a dash + a number or initials indicating that it passed secondary inspection. You can see an example of this in the Subaru PDF.
-(Case Quantities) If the case packaging has a date code of 777

Filters recalled, which may leak:
-If the date code begins with A2290x or earlier (where x is 1, 2, or 3) AND has no other adjacent markings or a single white dot adjacent to the date code.

Example of recalled filter, which I purchased in October 2012.

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Specifics about how you will exchange both installed and unopened oil filters can be found in the Dealer Letter below.

i guess what they are trying to say is all filters at dealership have already and will be checked prior to any service work. They already are aware and have removed them from their stock. You need to be worried if you ordered these from a vendor/dealer before the recall was made aware. thats jsut how i interepretted it

OP, thanks for the heads up. How many miles do you have on the filter now? That's some scary chit that the affected filters will fail within 300 miles (at the latest)!!

I just checked my stock, all are S2 (made in Canada) so I lucked out. I've got over 3K miles on the installed filter so I figured it was ok. I already had a close call with a cracked pickup and don't want anymore oil surprises.

This reminds me of the guy on the forums recently who had the dealer do an oil change on his new WRX and soon afterwards he had a big oil leak from the filter causing engine damage. The dealer told him there was an issue with the filter and we were all BS, the tech must've double-gasketed the filter or something. Well, I guess the dealer wasn't BSing after all.

Great heads up!
Getting under my car tomorrow to check on this...I bought my last filter 3 days too early (December 12)! My local dealer said they did have to pull a few filters but didn't have too many of the bad ones...hope I bought a good one! I'm over 300 miles by far and haven't lost any oil so I figure I'm good...

OP, thanks for the heads up. How many miles do you have on the filter now? That's some scary chit that the affected filters will fail within 300 miles (at the latest)!!

I had about 200 miles on the oil when I changed the oil filter last night (reusing the same oil). I checked the oil level before every trip just to be safe.

There was oil visibly pooling on the underbody cover and an oil droplet collecting on the bottom of the filter. Also oil dripping down nearby surfaces. Maybe about 1/16 quart in total.

Also to clarify, the 1-qt dealership oil reimbursement is liquid reimbursement, not monetary reimbursement, and you must provide a copy of an oil receipt for them. They gave me 1 quart of SM GF-4 Subaru Synthetic 5W-30.

Additionally, you must take off any installed recalled filter before they exchange it as a defective product through the service department - necessitating two trips to the dealer, unless you have a non-recall or different brand filter handy to swap it out with. YMMV at your dealer - maybe they can figure out how to do a refund on oil you did not purchase from them.